James W. Valentine (born 11 November 1926) is an American evolutionary biologist, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and curator at the University of California Museum of Paleontology. He was born in Los Angeles, California and educated at Phillips University, (B.A., 1951) andthe University of California, Los Angeles (M.A., 1954, Ph.D., 1958). He married Diane Mondragon in 1987and had 3 children.